Bought a Kemper!

jzucker

Experienced
So, lately I was feeling a bit uninspired with my AX8 and I really missed the MBritt Robben Ford Dumble sound from when I had a kemper about 2 years ago. So, I convinced myself that the kemper sounded better than axefx and bought one from a store in NYC. It was about $2k new with the footswitch. My big complaint at the time was that the effects were toylike, the reverb and delays extremely mediocre.

I got it and loaded all my original mbritt profiles. Tried out the dumble patch and yes indeedy, it rocks! Tried some of the other mbritt profiles for fender clean, fender semi-clean, matchless, vox, dumble clean, etc., etc.

And guess what? Other than the mbritt robben ford, they all pretty much sounded mediocre. Not even close to the fractal. *AND* 2 years later, and the reverbs and delay still sound horrible. Not even as good as the reverb on a 15 year old Boss RV-2 pedal. The spring reverb was laughable and the delays sounded like '80s tech to me. Scrolled through the other effects and they still don't have a fusiony overdrive and the chorus sounded like pop music circa 1980s too. I was really surprised that the matchless DC30 didn't sound anything like a real dc30 whereas the fractal raises the same hair on the back of my neck as the real amp.

So, I turned it off and requested a refund. The next morning, I plugged back into the kemper with fresh ears and after an hour, I unplugged it and plugged the AX8 back in. Packed the kemper back up and returned it.

I was shocked that in that period of time, there were few improvements in the effects. I will say that the mbritt robben ford dumble sounded great though. I'd love to figure out what to adjust to get the fractal in the same ballpark.

But overall, the kemper isn't even close.
 
One thing I think Kemper is great for, is cloning guitar heads (and them playing them into a SS power amp and cab).
I have a Kemper and the DI Load Box in my possession. I cloned 3 of my favorite heads in a few minutes and they all sound amazing.
The bounce and feel is all there. I am a Fractal fanatic, but I still think the Kemper is very useful piece of gear.
 
I get reasonably close to the tone in this video with my Gibson LP and:

ODS-100 Ford Mid-Boost

Input Drive 5
Overdrive 4.75
Bass 2.50
Middle 3.50
Treble 3.00

CAB:
Factory 1: 785
 
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I think I lasted about three days with the Kemper before I sent it back a few years ago.
 
The Kemper is amazing. You're doing it wrong. I don't go to forums, even manufacturer hosted ones; to chat about things in an echo chamber. So just as I would go and defend the axe FX on the Kemper forum when somebody cuckoo tries to disparage it there; I have to do the equivalent here as well. Both both platforms are awesome and can be dialed in (profile loaded :D) to sound great as well as dialed in (profile loaded :D ) to sound not so great.
 
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In fairness, apparently a total rewrite of the Kemper reverbs is coming in the next couple of weeks.
 
In fairness, apparently a total rewrite of the Kemper reverbs is coming in the next couple of weeks.

i heard that 2 years ago when I got rid of mine. Also, they demo'd the reverb re-write in june and it's still not here. The big problem with kemper is a single processor sharing the amp modeling and the effects so the effects will always be a compromise.
 
The Kemper is amazing. You're doing it wrong. I don't go to forums, even manufacturer hosted ones; to chat about things in an echo chamber. So just as I would go and defend the axe FX on the Kemper forum when somebody cuckoo tries to disparage it there; I have to do the equivalent here as well. Both both platforms are awesome and can be dialed in (profile loaded :D) to sound great as well as dialed in (profile loaded :D ) to sound not so great.
I get reasonably close to the tone in this video with my Gibson LP and:

ODS-100 Ford Mid-Boost

Input Drive 5
Overdrive 4.75
Bass 2.50
Middle 3.50
Treble 3.00

CAB:
Factory 1: 785

what's the cab?
 
The Kemper is amazing. You're doing it wrong. I don't go to forums, even manufacturer hosted ones; to chat about things in an echo chamber. So just as I would go and defend the axe FX on the Kemper forum when somebody cuckoo tries to disparage it there; I have to do the equivalent here as well. Both both platforms are awesome and can be dialed in (profile loaded :D) to sound great as well as dialed in (profile loaded :D ) to sound not so great.

No, i'm not doing it wrong. I had a kemper for 6 months prior to getting an axefx when I sold it the first time. And the mbritt profiles are already "dialed in".
 
i don't see that in my cab list. is that from an add on ?
think he's referring to Axe-Fx III cabs there...

that particular IR should be available in "Cab Pack 17: AustinBuddy's Boutiques" though (if you happened to have that one)
 
Im an axe fx person all the way, dont need more gear, HOWEVER, I have seen many many pro's using Kemper for amp /cab; A lot use fractal and more for effects not amps (vai, petrucci); but from Jeff Loomis to Simone Mularoni of dgm ( monster player) to Alex Skolnik testament, someone must like it!
 
The Kemper is amazing. You're doing it wrong. I don't go to forums, even manufacturer hosted ones; to chat about things in an echo chamber. So just as I would go and defend the axe FX on the Kemper forum when somebody cuckoo tries to disparage it there; I have to do the equivalent here as well. Both both platforms are awesome and can be dialed in (profile loaded :D) to sound great as well as dialed in (profile loaded :D ) to sound not so great.
Totally agree.
 
A screwdriver is not a hammer and vice versa.

They are two different tools with two different functions.

A Kemper really shines when you want a quick way to clone the sounds & feel of your favorite amps that you own with their favorite settings. With electronic components having tolerances of plus or minus 10 or 20 percent depending upon quality, age, etc., dialing that exactness in with a modeler entering values parameter by parameter can be tricky to get the same response and feel, especially if your particular amp does not exist in the given modeler. The Fractal tone match function can only get you part of the way there if your amp is not currently modeled, if you don't know which one of the model amps corresponds with your amp (that's not always easy to find on the forum or a web search either)..

The Fractal is awesome if you want to play through really good examples of world class amps or want to mod them into sometimes impossible in the real world amps. The Kemper algorithms really fall apart when you try to do similar mayhem with their profiles. The Fractal also has superior sounding effects ( except for Kemper's formant pitch shift, which is really neat).

Once you know what job you want to do, embrace using the tool that best accomplishes that goal and you will be rarely disappointed.
 
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